Sean Brennan

Associate Professor

Contact details

Brief overview

Sean is the Director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and teaches and writes mainly in the areas of constitutional law, native title and Aboriginal land rights. After working as a judge's associate in the Federal Court, with various Aboriginal and other community organisations and in the Commonwealth Parliament’s research service, Sean joined the UNSW Faculty of Law in May 2002. He is the Director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre’s Indigenous Legal Issues Project and earlier, between 2002 and 2005, was Director of the Centre’s Treaty Project. He is the co-editor of Native Title from Mabo to Akiba: A Vehicle for Change and Empowerment? (Federation Press, 2015)(with Megan Davis, Brendan Edgeworth and Leon Terrill) and author of Blackshield & Williams Australian Constitutional Law and Theory (Federation Press, 7th ed, 2018) (with Andrew Lynch and George Williams), Indigenous Legal Issues: Commentary and Materials (Thomson Reuters, 4th ed, 2009) (with Heather McRae, Garth Nettheim, Thalia Anthony, Laura Beacroft, Megan Davis and Terri Janke) and Treaty (Federation Press, 2005) (with Larissa Behrendt, Lisa Strelein and George Williams).

Areas of expertise

Constitutional law

Native title and land rights

Indigenous legal issues in general

Centre

Faculty Management Group

Memberships

Centre Director and Director of Indigenous Legal Issues Project, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law

Chair of Management Committee, Kingsford Legal Centre

Member of Editorial Board, Australian Indigenous Law Review

Research supervision

Current:

Lauren Butterly (PhD), Indigenous Governance of Sea Country in Australia

Jayne Weepers (Scientia PhD), Supporting Economic Development on Indigenous Land

Completed:

Fiona Martin (PhD), Tax Regimes for Mining Payments in Native Title and Aboriginal Land Rights